-Prof. K.N.VASWANI |
Eknath Ranade |
Eknathji Ranade: The Man and his MissionShri Eknath Ranade, President, Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee and Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, Is no more. But he lives beyond death in the inspiring, magnificent Vivekananda Rock Memorial off the Kanyakumari shore and even more in the living, growing memorial–Vivekananda Kendra–a spiritually oriented Service Mission, consisting of men and women, specially young men and young women, dedicated to the twin tasks of man-making and nation-building inspired by the ideals of Swami Vivekananda – Renunciation and Service, Tyaga and Seva. Eknathji lived and died to build, to foster, to nourish with his vision, his will, his wisdom, his life-long Sadhana and Tapas, his sweat, his tears, his blood remaining dedicated and dynamic to the last day of his life, 22nd of August 1982, when he breathed his last at 2.45 p. m. after a sudden, massive heart attack in his office at Madras while on his way to Kanyakumari. He was returning after a long tour which had taken him to Kashmir, Delhi, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Bombay, Nagpur, Poona, Sholapur, etc., to visit the various Vivekananda Kendra Branches and to meet the life-workers of the Vivekananda Kendra, whom he had trained with such care and affection for devoted, selfless service, which was both a passion with him, as also an inexhaustible source of abiding inspiration to him, which kept him ever a tireless worker, undeterred by difficulties, undaunted by obstacles and problems, accepting them as challenges, as hurdles to be crossed with courage and confidence, treating them as opportunities for strengthening oneself for more work, harder work, more dedicated work, more selfless work.